Lout assaulted police and smashed up phone box

An Earby lout assaulted and injured two police officers as they struggled to arrest him after he smashed up a phone box, a court heard.

Drunken groundworker Lee Anthony Phillips left a policewoman with a sore wrist after he kicked her. He also hurt her colleague’s elbow when the officer was knocked to the ground in the sustained late-night violence.

Police had been called after Phillips had been seen lobbing a brick and smashing the kiosk with his fist, causing damage worth £300.

Burnley magistrates were told how Phillips had lashed out at the officers after his girlfriend, who he had argued with, rang on his mobile phone and police wouldn’t let him answer the call.

They tried to detain him and he had “hugged” a telegraph pole to try and stop the officers taking hold of him.

The 28-year-old, said to have up to eight cans of lager a day, had even more, and cocaine, at weekends and had a record littered with drink-fuelled police attacks.

The defendant, who has 22 offences behind him, admitted criminal damage and two counts of police assault.

Phillips, of Waddington Street, was given a 12-month community order with an alcohol treatment programme and must pay each victim £25 compensation.